The subject matter disclosed herein relates to X-ray imaging systems and more particularly to image compression over a communication channel in X-ray imaging systems.
Digital X-ray imaging systems are becoming increasingly widespread for producing digital data which can be reconstructed into useful radiographic images. In current digital X-ray imaging systems, radiation from a source is directed toward a subject, typically a patient in a medical diagnostic application. A portion of the radiation passes through the patient and impacts a detector. The surface of the detector converts the radiation to light photons that are sensed. The detector is divided into a matrix of discrete picture elements or pixels, and encodes output signals based upon the quantity or intensity of the radiation impacting each pixel region. The detector communicates the encoded output signals to a host computer, which processes the image received based on the digital pixel values. This communication takes place over a communication channel, which may include a tether or a wireless link, between the detector and the computer. Unfortunately, it often takes a long time to send the digital pixel values over the communication channel because of the size of the digital representation needed to maintain sufficient gray levels of the X-ray image. Accordingly, it is now recognized that there is a need for reducing image transfer time across the communication link, without an undesirable loss of gray levels or increase in noise.